A conic formulation for hBcnorm optimization

In this paper, we formulate the $l_p$-norm optimization problem as a conic optimization problem, derive its standard duality properties and show it can be solved in polynomial time. We first define an ad hoc closed convex cone, study its properties and derive its dual. This allows us to express the standard $l_p$-norm optimization primal problem … Read more

Exploiting Sparsity in Semidefinite Programming via Matrix Completion II: Implementation and Numerical Results

In Part I of this series of articles, we introduced a general framework of exploiting the aggregate sparsity pattern over all data matrices of large scale and sparse semidefinite programs (SDPs) when solving them by primal-dual interior-point methods. This framework is based on some results about positive semidefinite matrix completion, and it can be embodied … Read more

Proving strong duality for geometric optimization using a conic formulation

Geometric optimization is an important class of problems that has many applications, especially in engineering design. In this article, we provide new simplified proofs for the well-known associated duality theory, using conic optimization. After introducing suitable convex cones and studying their properties, we model geometric optimization problems with a conic formulation, which allows us to … Read more

Minimum Risk Arbitrage with Risky Financial Contracts

For a set of financial securities specified by their expected returns and variance/covariances we propose the concept of minimum risk arbitrage, characterize conditions under which such opportunities may exist. We use conic duality and convex analysis to derive these characterizations. For practical computation a decidability result on the existence of an arbitrage opportunity is derived. … Read more

Strengthened Semidefinite Relaxations via a Second Lifting for the Max-Cut Problem

In this paper we study two strengthened semidefinite programming relaxations for the Max-Cut problem. Our results hold for every instance of Max-Cut; in particular, we make no assumptions about the edge weights. We prove that the first relaxation provides a strengthening of the Goemans-Williamson relaxation. The second relaxation is a further tightening of the first … Read more

A New and Efficient Large-Update Interior-Point Method for Linear Optimization

Recently, the authors presented a new large-update primal-dual method for Linear Optimization, whose $O(n^\frac23\,\log\frac{n}{\e})$ iteration bound substantially improved the classical bound for such methods, which is $O\br{n\log\frac{n}{\e}}$. In this paper we present an improved analysis of the new method. The analysis uses some new mathematical tools developed before when we considered a whole family of … Read more

Convex optimization problems involving finite autocorrelation sequences

We discuss convex optimization problems where some of the variables are constrained to be finite autocorrelation sequences. Problems of this form arise in signal processing and communications, and we describe applications in filter design and system identification. Autocorrelation constraints in optimization problems are often approximated by sampling the corresponding power spectral density, which results in … Read more

An Interior-Point Approach to Sensitivity Analysis in Degenerate Linear Programs

We consider the interior-point approach to sensitivity analysis in linear programming (LP) developed by the authors. We investigate the quality of the interior-point bounds under degeneracy. In the case of a special degeneracy, we show that these bounds have the same nice relationship with the optimal partition bounds as in the nondegenerate case. We prove … Read more

Improved linear programming bounds for antipodal spherical codes

Let $S\subset[-1,1)$. A finite set $C=\{x_i\}_{i=1}^M\subset\Re^n$ is called a {\em spherical S-code} if $||x_i||=1$ for each $i$, and $x_i^T x_j\in S$, $i\ne j$. For $S=[-1,.5]$ maximizing $M=|C|$ is commonly referred to as the {\em kissing number} problem. A well-known technique based on harmonic analysis and linear programming can be used to bound $M$. We consider … Read more

On implementing a primal-dual interior-point method for conic quadratic optimization

Conic quadratic optimization is the problem of minimizing a linear function subject to the intersection of an affine set and the product of quadratic cones. The problem is a convex optimization problem and has numerous applications in engineering, economics, and other areas of science. Indeed, linear and convex quadratic optimization is a special case. Conic … Read more